The coyote
by cornwallace
Summary: After a devastating attack on Knothole, the surviving members of the Freedom Fighters face no choice but to attempt to beat a storm through the woods to seek refuge in Lower Mobius.
1. suffer

_  
suffer

* * *

it's not up to you anymore, sonic. at once it was but not no more ohohoho.  
i know your tricks. i've seen through your lies.

foundation rumbles. rock pulsating in my hands like a living brain. thumping like a heart.  
eheheheh.  
feed it my grip, trying to mash it in my hands but the smothered form withholds.

teeth freeing drool down my chin but i don't care. i turn my attention back to sonic. the muffled screaming, a beautiful score. so natural, so part of everything. teeth filtering hard wet breaths like rocks at the ocean. splashing. screaming.  
gagged. eyes wide. lies, more lies. nature is chaos and the rock is god.

bring it home until the music stops.

* * *

His eyes open abruptly as the gun goes off. Immediately panics, tries to fight it off. He fumbles for his pistol, Beretta M9. Soft glow, blurred shadows through the lining of the tent. Racking the slide back, he flicks the safety upward.  
Pistol shaking in his hands. He's never had to use it. Hoping now won't be the first time.

The yelling had been there since before the gunshot, before he woke up. But it only now begins to register. The men yelling, the screaming. What sounds like the growling of a vicious beast.  
Miles timidly unzips the tent and steps out into the outskirts of the glow cast by the dying fire. A crowd gathered around a single tent, flashlights cutting through the silhouettes inside. A gurgling sound replaces the screaming as teeth tear through windpipe. Air escaping in a rasp. Sonic's voice barely heard above the others' confused shouting "EXIT THE TENT OR I'LL SHOOT."

And that's when Nack and Sonic open fire. Sally's shrill scream echoing through the forest. Tails, dropping his gun and covering his ears as he falls to his knees near the campfire. All is quiet, save for the ringing.  
Tails looks up and quickly counts the shadows in his head. One of them seems to flicker. He thinks he counts eight but two recounts confirm seven.

* * *

"Nack, go in there, make sure it's dead."

"Make sure THEY'RE dead?" He digs two empty cartridges out of the cylinder of his revolver and casts them aside casually. Digging in his ammo bag to replace them. "Whoever was getting attacked sure as shit didn't survive."

"Fucked if we did, fucked if we didn't," Sonic spits. "At least it didn't take anyone else."

"What was it?"

"Only one way to find out."

"Whose tent is this?" Nack says, gently snapping the cylinder into place and holstering the pistol.

* * *

The coyote

* * *

"I don't like it," Ari says. "I don't like it one bit. Them woods is hainted."

"Excusing me, what is to being hainted?"

Ari laughs. "What'sa matter, Ant? You only speak fancy?"

"He means haunted," Nack says. "You aren't buying this shit, are you, Sonic?"

"Whether or not it's haunted, it's going to be dangerous," Sally says diplomatically before Sonic can respond. "People don't often come back from those parts of the forest."

Sonic sighs, frustrated. "We don't really have a choice. Spouting off superstitions isn't gonna do any good."

"Fuckin' right," Nack agrees. "Get out of here with that shit."

"Please, Nack," Bunnie says, resting her face in her organic palm. "Give it a rest, would ya?"

"Don't tell me you believe that shit, too. Tell me, what compartment do you keep your soul in?"

Bunnie looks at him, annoyed. Sally steps in to break it up again. "C'mon, stop. That's uncalled for."

"Same compartment I'll keep your hide in after I tannit…" she mutters.

"All of you," Sally says to nobody in particular. "Arguing isn't going to keep our spirits up. Sonic's right, though. There's a storm coming and we can't afford to take the long way around the thick of things. And Griff here, he says he knows the area."

"Are you sure you know the area?"

"B-been through a c-couple times," Griff speaks up timidly.

"A couple times," Nack says. "Just how long has it been since you've taken this path to Lower Mobius?"

"Thuh-thirteen years."

"Sure as shit aint haunted, Sonic, but we're following a simpleton and that is real. That will get us killed."

Griff doesn't say anything. Sonic grits his teeth. "Do you have any better ideas?"

Nack toothily smirks. "Nope. Just like everyone to know how fucked we are."

"Shut the fuck up, Nack. How long does it take to get to the sewer?"

"Thruh-three or four d-days S-sonic."

"That's not bad," Sonic says. "We may just be able to beat the storm."

"We should get some shuteye," Bunnie says, yawning and stretching her arm. "Sunrise'll come early."

Tails nods, quiet as he's one to be. He's the first to get up and make way to his tent. But the last to fall asleep, however, as he can't seem to stop playing things over in his head, again and again.

* * *

"Sonic, we have a goddamn problem here," Nack says, looking back over his shoulder. Out of the tent.

"What."

"There's a hole in the back of the tent, man."

"What?!"

"There's a fucking hole in the back of the tent and there's only one body in here, man. It's Antoine's, it's his fucking tent."

Sonic seethes. "I know it's his fucking tent, I just told you that. There was something or someone in there attacking him, murdering him just now, and you're telling me it magically escaped through the back of the tent?!"

"Not magically, it cut a fucking hole, man."

"And magically nobody saw it? Did anybody see anything?!"

Nobody says shit. They all look around at each other, searching for an answer that isn't there. Not where they can see just now.

"All right," Nack laughs, holstering his pistol in his belt. He draws the other one to check the cylinder, then holsters it, too. "This is how I see it. Sonic, I saw you, you helped me shoot the fucking thing that wasn't there." He's scouting as he speaks. "Sally, I saw you up, same as Bunny. Antoine sure as shit didn't kill himself." Advancing. He grabs Griff by the side of the face. "What about you, buddy? Where were you?"

"I-i-i-i-i-" Griff tries to say things, but things he does not say. It's more sounds, really.

"Can ya'll just quit yer bickerin'?" Bunnie asks, tiredly.

"The hell you doin', boy," Ari says, grabbing Nack's shoulder, coach gun barrels leaning against his own. "I know it weren't you, else I'd be ringin' yer goddamn neck about now."

"That's funny, old man, that's real funny," he says, his hand softly caressing the butt of the revolver holstered at the front of his belt. Sneering toothily. "I didn't see you either. What about it, big guy? You hulk your lumbering frame out the back of that tent?"

"You seen't 'im. How was he killt?"

"Neck torn open," he says, grinning as wide as he can get. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would ya?"

"I aint got no blood on me, boy. And I guarantee yer head'll be off before you can draw that goddamn pistol."

"I don't think I like your attitude."

"I don't like yours," Ari says, casually shifting the weight of the barrels from his shoulder to his hand. He thumbs a hammer back. "How do you like that?"

Nack laughs. "I like that okay, big man. You're watchin'. I like that." He licks his lips as his eyes dart around his head. "What about him, big man? You see him?" He's pointing to Miles Prower.

Ari's eyebrows raise as he looks back and forth between Miles and Nack. "What. You think that little critter did it?"

"And what if he did it? Are you gonna protect him, papa bear?" he takes a step forward.

Ari stops him with a gentle hand on his chest and a stern look into his eyes. "If you harass that critter, I'll give you three assholes." He smiles warmly and taps his other shoulder with the shotgun.

Nack wants to give the ram a black eye for his troubles but he decides against it.

"I thought there were eight but there were seven," Tails says, quietly but just sternly enough to be heard over the wind and the crackling of the flame. It sounds oddly robotic. "It was like his ghost or something."

* * *

"Hey kiddo," Sonic says, sitting down next to the timid fox.

"Hey," Tails says.

"You okay?"

"I guess." He's lying and Sonic knows it. The full sized handgun in his eight year old hands plays off like a visual joke. He turns it over to the other hand absentmindedly. He almost jumps when Sonic's comforting hand is placed on his shoulder.

"I-I know it's hard, little guy. None of us wanted any of this."

"I know," Tails says quietly. "I'm okay, I promise."

"Why don't you give your Aunt Bunnie and Amy some company, eh? I think she's a little scared."

A half smile. "Sure."  
Tails hops up and wanders across the campsite. Sonic draws his own pistol and checks it - pulling back the slide just enough to see the butt of the cartridge in the barrel.

* * *

"Heya 'Sug. Come sit down, Ari's teachin' us whittlin'."  
Tails quietly sits down on the log next to Bunnie, opposite Ari and Amy. Amy's kind of bossy, but Tails still likes her. Ari's a lot of fun, too, one of the more outgoing members of the freedom fighters. He's putting the finishing touches on his carving. He collapses his pocket knife and pockets it. He hands Amy the figure.

"And there you have it - a cute lil' ol' bunny rabbit," he says, slyly winking at Bunnie.

You can just about see the blush through her fur. "Oh my stars," she mutters to herself.

"Looks like I missed the lesson," Tails says.

"We just set up camp!" Ari says, gruffly laughing. "We got time to carve up another. What kinda animal you want? Manly kid like you... how about a wolf, eh? Or a coyote?"

He laughs nervously. "Yeah, okay."

* * *

"Was it a good idea to arm the children?"

"They've had training," Sonic says, his breath visible against the cold night air. "Hopefully they won't have to use them."

"This is getting scary, Sonic," Sally says, crossing her arms and shaking her head. "After what happened to Antoine I think maybe we should.."

"What, turn back? You know we can't. We have nothing to turn back to."

"Whoever - whatever killed him is still out there. Maybe it's one of us."

"It couldn't have been. We would have seen the blood on them. And what happened to Antoine it... it wasn't mobian. It couldn't have been."

"What if it's following us, Sonic? What if it's still out there? Waiting."

"That's why we sleep in shifts. If anyone so much as tries to steal food from the campfire we'll take care of it."

They both look over at the campfire and everyone sitting around it. If either of them would have done a head count, they would have counted seven instead of six.  
In fact, nobody seems to notice the coyote there. Nobody except for Tails. Tails, who knows the coyote wasn't part of the group.

Tails, who's afraid of what might happen if he is caught looking at the coyote, or if anyone else notices its presence. He looks down at the figure in his hands. Perhaps an omen. He closes his fist around it and shuts his eyes tight. Trying to figure out what to do.  
Tails looks up and the coyote is gone.


	2. rend

_  
rend 

* * *

Tails wakes up covered in blood. He doesn't know where he is and nobody else is around.  
Staring at his bloody hands, he blinks and the tears roll down his face. Matting his fur to his cheeks. He wasn't cognizant of the fact that he was crying until just now. 

* * *

In the creek, he washes himself off. He gets rid of the vest and the gloves he was wearing.  
It doesn't seem like the blood will ever come off. He feels ill when he finds chunks of something in his fur.  
He doesn't seem to be connected to himself. If you asked him, he'd say he was afloat.

Always a shadow in the corner of his eye. Something he can never catch. He finds it difficult to breathe, sometimes. To hold himself steady. He keeps trembling. He could only kinda see his reflection in the creek.

It starts to rain and he looks for the alcove. He starts whining to himself, thinking he's lost.

Eventually, he finds his way back to his little shelter. The alcove in the rock wall. It doesn't work perfectly, but it's better than nothing.  
Tails wishes he was back in his hut. When Tails couldn't sleep, Aunt Sally used to hum to him sometimes, or Aunt Bunnie would tell him a story. He liked hugs better from Aunt Sally more than he liked hugs from Aunt Bunnie but he would never say that because he does appreciate Bunnie's just as much.

It's a good time to sing, he says to himself. He whines. His shelter isn't perfect but it's better than nothing.  
He's hungry but all the blood is gone. 

* * *

When the shotgun goes off it is lost to gravity, and so is he. 

* * *

"Watch out for that bear trap," Sonic says over his shoulder, wildly gesturing to catch all the eyes before pointing to the danger.

Tails timidly shuffles from behind his left leg to his right to add some girth to his avoidance. The party in tow follows suit, one foot at a time.

Sonic appears to be very tired. Tails has questions, but is apprehensive about asking them. Griff, leading the way, seems more and more uncertain as he goes along. If Sonic wasn't right behind him, who knows what would have happened to him.

Following the oblivious leader takes its toll in subtle ways.  
Every confused misstep or pause to think leaves its mark on the remaining party.

Testing everyone's patience. Becoming spite, or anger, or general inner turmoil.

Nobody says anything. They simply push forward. 

* * *

Two gunshots.  
Loud.

Awake before he knows it. Eyes opened wide.  
Tails blinks before he realizes he is crying. Tears matting the fur down on his cheeks. He tries his best to suppress it, to stop as he blindly readies his weapon in the darkness.

This is all too much for him. A cry that will go unheard.  
The action of his firearm has always frightened him, despite the fact that he's the one in control. Or perhaps in tandem to.  
Trembling fingers struggle to open the tent.

Frustrated grunts. A gruff scream in pain and fear.  
Every mortal has its limit.

Pounding against flesh and bone - hard.

Cracking.  
Breath like a jigsaw against the trunk of a tree.

Final words unheard by anyone but himself.

Tails looks upon the dying embers of the campfire and sees death itself dancing atop them. 

* * *

"Thuh-thuh-thuh-three or four days, S-sonic!" Nack angrily mimics Griff. "We'll be there in thruh-thruh-three or four days, right?!"

Griff doesn't say anything.  
At first, neither does anybody else. Not until Nack draws his pistol and sticks it to the sullen goat's chest.

"Do you know where the fuck you're going?"

"Y-y-"

Sonic tries to cut this off by putting a hand on his shoulder. "That's enough."

Nack whirls around, pointing his revolver at Sonic. Jabbing the barrel into his belly.

"You want a bullet, huh? Last I checked that fucking ram isn't here to protect you. You wanna eat lead, you fucking say something, because I am sick and goddamn tired of this bullshi-"

Sonic moves as soon as the hammer clicks into place. Before he can react, Sonic's pulled the gun from his desperate grip and catches him on the side of his face with his elbow on the upswing. Sonic flips the gun in his hand and pistol whips him.

Nack crumbles. Sonic steps on his torso, pointing his own gun at him.

"Hands up."

The weasel stares up at him for a moment before responding. Wide eyed and confused.  
He complies.

Sonic leans in. Keeping a close eye on him.  
Relieves him of his belt and holsters. Ammunition and firearm confiscated. Sonic tosses it over his shoulder.

Nack is angry and Sonic takes note.

"You'll get this back when you calm down. Understand?"

"I'm calm," he says, slowly dropping his hands and balling them into fists. "Calm as a fucking boulder."

"Be calmer than that," Sonic says, holstering his weapon and walking away. He picks up Nack's gunbelt and retires to his tent. 

* * *

Ari had taken off most her head with the shotgun. That was something Sonic confiscated as well.  
Bunnie was still attacking him. Nothing but her lower jaw left. Bloody teeth jutting out like some kind of nightmare.  
Mechanical arm pounding away at his soft flesh. Not so much breaking his fragile bones as shattering them.

Bunnie would never do something like that. It couldn't have been her, could it?

Sonic questions the sanity of the others. He's not in a place where he can appropriately assess the mental stability of others.  
No insanity can bring about the defiance for physics, he chatters to himself uselessly.

Sally tries to talk to him but he tells her to go away. He struggles to justify any of this as reality.

A few yards away from this, Tails lays awake in his tent. Gun in one hand. Palm of his other hand over his face.  
He remembers the safety lessons. He keeps his finger off of the trigger. But still it stays in his trembling hand.  
Sobbing. Unaware of the coyote. Inches away from him. 

* * *

"She's gone, Sonic!"

"Who? What?" Sonic is barely awake for this. He hasn't had any time to process anything.

"Amy! She's gone from her tent. Missing!"

"You have got to be kidding me right now..."

"This isn't a joke! We have to do something!"

"FUCK!" Sonic shouts, grabbing a nearby fallen branch and hurling it with all his might against a tree. Calling way more attention than he was cognizant of.  
He looks around. Collects himself. Breathes in deep. "We'll bury our dead, okay? We'll bury our dead in the morning, and we'll wait for Amy to come back for us."

"What if she's lost, Sonic?"

"I'll scout around for her. We'll scout around for her. We'll look for her as long as we can, alright?"

Sally bites her lip apprehensively. 

* * *

The click of the hammer being thumbed back is what stirs him.  
Griff's eyes lazily blink open and realizes the dire situation he's in. He tries not to make noise but an involuntary whine escapes his existence.

"Quiet, boy. You've got a job to do, don't you?"

"Y-yes."

"Don't speak. You can nod when I ask you a question, can't ye?"

Griff nods viciously.

"Good. You know where we're going?"

Griff nods again.

"You'd fucking better because that's what we signed up for, isn't it? You make one more goddamn sound, I mean if you step on a twig and wake anybody up, and I'm gonna blast the back of your skull through your fucking face and make for the woods, you understand?"

Griff nods once more and the pecking order is set as far as Nack's concerned. 

* * *

He flew until he couldn't anymore and then he hugged Sonic's neck.  
His ankle might be broken. But it isn't. All the same it's constant agony.

It was hard for him to keep from crying in general. But he soldiered through, for Sonic's sake. 

* * *

His foot catches a pothole and he cries out. 

* * *

He's not paying attention to where Griff is stepping and he steps in a bear trap and cries out. His gun firing in all directions.  
Griff is terrified, he runs.

Nack screams after him. 

* * *

"YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Gunshots ring throughout the forest.

"FUCK!" 

* * *

"You understand why we had to leave them, yeah?" Sonic's face looks pale, cold. Dead.  
Dead as he might well be.

He continues to justify himself. "If we hadn't have abandoned them, they would have clung to us forever," he spits. "Holding us back."

Tails is frightened, for the first time he's cognizant of, by his hero's actions.

"What about Amy?" he dares to ask.

"Amy?" Sonic needs to collect himself. He takes a minute. "Amy is dead. They all are. They just don't know it yet." 

* * *

Griff knows where he's going.  
Trying not to panic as he eyeballs his surroundings in the dark. He wonders how drastically the foliage has changed over the years.

It's okay, he continues to whisper to himself. Trying not to choke on his tears. It's okay.

There should be a cave. Should be.  
Should be should be should be. 

* * *

sing another one tails, he says as he breaks the wood breaks the branches.  
sing another campfire song. somethin' you haven't sung in awhile.

well i gave me old lute to  
a fella named morkmoo  
he was a goblin 'bout as high as yer knees  
well he stole me horse and carriage  
he e'en defiled me marriage  
he ran off with me charlies, aheadin' for the trees 

* * *

Tails sings monotone. Robotic-like.  
He's staring at the shotgun while Sonic stares at his wood for the fire.  
The coyote flickers in the distance like a dying flame. 

* * *

His screams echo the forest after the blast. He's still very much alive. 

* * *

The splash of the rain against the ground mats Griff's fur to his skin. He is shivering but he is somewhere else.  
He could have moved further into the cave, but he didn't know what sort of insects or snakes lie in wait. Already out of his comfort zone. Trying to make do.

Shivering.  
A warm glow washing over his eyelids. Light? From behind him?  
Eyelids flutter open. He can hear the fire crackling before he turns around to see it. A beautiful fire, illuminating the cave in its entirety. Not a creature in sight - save for the coyote. Whose eyes seem to glisten of the flame.

His posture is almost vulnerable, protective. He hugs his knees. Head tilted to the side. Mesmerized by the flame.  
Griff rolls over and crawls closer. Sitting up on his knees. Unsure what to do with himself.

The shadows of the geography of the cave dance along it with each pop and lick of the flame.

"T-traveler like me?" Griff asks, hopeful.

No response.

"Guh-gee, where you headed? ... I'm g-going to l-lower muh-mobius!"

Still nothing. The coyote doesn't seem to be aware of his presence - or to be altered by it.

"N-not much of a talker, huh? I'm not either!"  
He claps close to his chest and smiles about this thing they have in common.  
Refolding his legs under him for comfort. He crosses his legs and scoots closer to the fire.  
Palms flat. Closer to the fire. He warms his hands, turning them over.

Flexing his fingers. He looks to the coyote and his expression seems more intense.  
Lightning strikes.  
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Thunder.

"I'm scared too," Griff says.  
"I'm worried about my fuh-friends."  
"I huh-hope Sally found Amy."

Lightning strikes.  
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Thunder.

"I huh-hope S-Sonic and Sally and Tails and Amy are truh-tracking me. I huh-hope Nack is..."

He doesn't want to say what he hopes happens to Nack. He doesn't want to hope what he hopes happens to Nack.

Lightning strikes.

Thunder. Loud.

A tree tears itself apart and falls to the ground mere meters away.  
Griff flinches into himself. Whimpers. Hands on his head he rocks quietly back and forth.

Noticing a change in his peripherals, Griff looks up. The coyote is staring at him. Eyes, white. Without pupil or iris.

He wonders if it can see. 

* * *

Miles Prower is not okay.  
He doesn't think he skinned or cooked the critter correctly, but he ate it anyway. Not sure if he's feeling ill because he cooked it wrong or at the mere thought of it. Anywhere but here would be nice.

He misses his tent.  
He misses his hut.  
He misses his aunts.  
He misses the Sonic he believed in.

A flash and a pause. The thunder still startles him.

The ball of light in the night sky erupts with a beautiful aura.  
His face buried in his knees. His arms wrapped tightly around them. He looks up.

Drawn upwards, towards the sky. He stumbles out into the rain. Lightning crashes and he powers through the thunder. He keeps walking. Keeps searching.  
Keeps looking for something.

Several blinks of an eye into the journey, Miles begins to feel craven. His thoughts bring him to his knees. He believes himself to be the worst thing that ever happened.

Miles Prower buries his hands in his palms and he sobs.

He doesn't know what else to do. He doesn't know where he is. He doesn't know where to go.

Miles Prower misses the lightning cue and gets shook by the thunder.

He looks up at the beautiful, dying sky. He looks down at his desperate hands clawing at the earth. He looks forward.

Miles Prower begins to run, despite the pain, because he sees a fire in the distance.


End file.
